Speaker and Writer—Changing the World

The Privilege of Youth Involvement

Youth boards, youth staff members, youth evaluators, youth advisors, youth researchers, youth trainers… all examples of ways to engage Youth Voice in organizations, and all privileged. The nature of youth involvement is one of privilege and exclusivity. This can be a difficult idea to grasp, but let’s think about it: for every one youth who is actively engaged in decision-making or leadership or empowerment activities of any time, there are dozens and hundreds more who aren’t. All that said, it is a privilege to be involved. Having deliberate opportunities to share Youth Voice with adults and throughout society is a particularly important thing, and that’s the point of this post: adults must understand that young people have these particularly powerful opportunities and that we have an ethical obligation to spread these opportunities throughout our society.